Team preview: Loyola (Md.)

Editor's Note: ESPN Insider has teamed with Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook to provide a comprehensive look at 335 Division I teams. To order the complete 2011-12 edition of Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, visit www.blueribbonyearbookonline.com or call 1-877-807-4857.
(Information in this team report is as of Oct. 1.)

COACH AND PROGRAM

Talent and depth are two key components to success at any level of basketball. Jimmy Patsos has been trying to stockpile both since taking over a Loyola program that went 1-27 before his arrival for the 2004-05 campaign.

With four starters and 12 letter winners returning, the Greyhounds should be good enough to compete with any team in the league this season. In fact, with wins over Fairfield, Iona and Saint Peter's, Loyola was good enough to do that last season. The Greyhounds just lacked the consistency to avoid losses to second-division squads Niagara and Canisius, and that prevented them from making even more noise.

Patsos, a longtime assistant to Gary Williams at Maryland, has made it a priority to recruit talented players from the basketball-rich Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas, and it has paid off.

"We've got more Baltimore flavor in the program," Patsos said. "The Baltimore and D.C. areas are loaded. We've got three guys from Baltimore on our roster and two more recruits for next year."